In The Background
by gatehead81
Summary: The morning after a team night Sam wants to check her email, but is booting up Jack's private laptop really such a smart idea? J/S one-shot fluff that could become potentially awkward for our favourite duo. A little bit of season 4 fun. Humour/Friendship Rated K.


**AN: More fluffy fun...enjoy :) This is not edited or re-read, just the way it tumbled out of my head so a little leeway for my impatience please ;)**

**Summary: The morning after a team night Sam wants to check her email, but is booting up Jack's private laptop really such a smart idea? J/S one-shot fluff that could become potentially awkward for our favourite duo. A little bit of season 4 fun. Humour/Friendship Rated K.**

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**IN THE BACKGROUND**

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Carter bit her lip, she knew she should not really be considering doing what she was about to do but the Colonel would not mind, not really. I mean she only wanted to check her email and his (really rather old school) laptop was sitting right there.

They had all opted to stay over at the Colonel's house and now that it was morning Sam was itching to check out the results of her latest run of simulations that she had started back at the mountain before Hammond ordered them all off on impromptu leave. The twenty-four hours were over and the results were just sitting there...idle...waiting.

Sam drummed her fingers on the kitchen table. It was 05.43 and none of the guys would be up for a while yet if they stayed true to form. All the same she glanced around the room, guiltily checking that she was alone. Carefully she lifted the lid of the chunky machine and waited for the log in screen to appear. The password cursor blink and she swallowed hard thinking logically about what the Colonel would use to keep his files safe. She tried the first and most obvious thing that popped into her head h-o-m-e-r. The machine beeped...wrong answer. A knot formed in her stomach as she typed in a second guess, c-h-a-r-l-i-e. Again she was incorrect.

Once again her eye ran around the room. The more she thought about it the more she was becoming convinced that if he caught her trying to access his computer he might just go through her for a short cut, especially if his password did end up being something as personal as the name of his dead son. Maybe this was a bad idea. Who was she kidding this was a terrible idea, all she had to do was wait a few hours and then she would be at home and she could analyse the results all she wanted. What had she been thinking? Her finger accidentally glanced off the return key as she stood up quickly, spooked by the rashness of her own impatience.

The screen changed and Sam was momentarily confused then she realised she had just been granted access. "No password? Colonel that's really not very smart." she mutter to herself, not quite believing Jack would leave his personal laptop not only lying around but so easy to get into.

Carter plonked herself back down again. Now that she was in, she might as well follow through. Three minutes would see the task complete. She shifted her weight slightly, the desktop had yet to appear. "Man this thing really is old." she mused aloud, it was taking forever to boot up. Suddenly an image appeared on the screen and she gasped, turning first pale and then blushing deeply.

Shocked she just sat there staring. Of all the things she had ever imagined he might have on his background this had never crossed her mind. "Wow!" she declared sitting back, the implications of what this could mean running through her mind.

Without warning it dawned on her. She definitely, definitely should not have seen this. Rising quickly the stool she sat on fell sideways and crashed loudly on the the tiled floor. "Crap!" she declared and looked directly towards the hall. She had about fifteen seconds till the Colonel would be out at her side checking for danger and making sure she was alright. There was no time to shut the laptop down. Reaching out she slammed down the lid just as he appeared into view.

"Carter! What's going on, everything alright?"

"Yes of course Sir, I ah, I just knocked over the stool is all." She stood straight up and to attention.

Jack, even through his sleep haze knew something more was going on. Carter was too tense, she was up to something. "Carter?" he enquired, scrutinising her closely.

"Sir?" she asked, trying to play the whole innocent card.

O'Neill took a moment to assess the situation. She was standing at his kitchen table. The only thing that was in her immediate vicinity was his laptop. There was not even a mug of coffee there to mitigate her situation. He pointed at it, a bad feeling rising up through him. "Did you just?" he asked, not wanting to finish the sentence. Heat rose up in his cheeks as she avoided his eye.

"Sir I...it wasn't my intention to..." words failed her, oh boy was this awkward.

"You hacked my computer?" Jack asked, trying hard to believe that she would do that.

"Not exactly Sir. I mean I...I only wanted to check my email." she confessed somewhat sheepishly and gazed at the ground.

Jack looked at her for a long moment. "And you couldn't have waited to do that...even till I got up?" he asked, trying to stay mad at her, but it was not her he was angry with, it was himself.

"I'm sorry Sir." Sam whispered, feeling terrible that she had caused this whole thing.

Jack shifted from one foot to the other and sighed heavily. He scrubbed a hand through his tousled bed hair. "Oh Major relax would you? It's not your fault, not really."

Carter looked up, wide-eyed. Was he really letting her off the hook that easily?

"I never should have left it out. How could you ever resist the pull of technology?" He tipped his head back, his eyes closed. "Go stick some coffee on would you?" he asked, determined to disconnect himself from the intense emotion of embarrassment he was feeling.

"Yes Sir." Sam whispered and took the out the Colonel had offered her.

There was a few moments of awkward silence as they both waited for the water to begin to drip down through the filter.

"You know Carter, about that um...that picture on my desktop-"

"It's fine Sir, you don't need to explain." Sam interrupted, feeling the heat rising in her cheeks again.

"Oh I think I do." Jack told her, not that he wanted to. He would much rather pretend the whole thing had not happened. "It's not...it's not what you think. I mean I...it's only up there because-"

"Sir please." Sam suddenly did not want to know. It was his computer and his private life. I mean she herself had numerous images and documents on her own laptop that she would simply die if he saw. Granted none of them were sitting brazen on her desktop but this was Jack O'Neill and his thought process was not as cautious as hers. "It's your laptop and I never should have tried to access it without your consent. I'm sorry." she told him genuinely as she watched the coffee slowly filling up, each drip causing ripples to run out and against the sides.

"Carter." Jack intoned gently and moved closer to her. "It's okay...really." He waited until she looked up at him. It was a quick glance and then her eyes were back on the brewing coffee. "Sa-am." he whispered softer still. "I never should have had your image up there in the first place." he told her candidly.

Carter felt her skin flush again. "It's not so much the image Sir. I don't mind that, it's..." she shook her head, it didn't matter.

"It's the nature of it. I know. But like I said it's not what you think. Frasier took it...the picture I mean."

"Janet?" Sam asked, looking at her CO. No way Janet would ever take a picture of her that looked like that!

"Yeah Janet. It's part of a larger image, one of all of us. I just..." He shuffled awkwardly and rolled his eyes to the ceiling, getting ready to confess. "I just chopped out the bits I didn't like." he muttered feeling embarrassed.

Sam blinked at him. "Wait." Her mind ran through a memory. "Cassie's birthday."

"At the beach, yeah." Jack confirmed. "I just removed Teal'c from it."

"So the picture is real...you didn't make me look...you didn't alter it in any way."

"Alter it? God no!" He turned more fully and face her. "Sam I would never alter an image of you...I mean my god, look at you, why would I ever need to do that?"

Two sets of mouths fell open, shocked at his words. Sam blinked furiously and was not even able to clear her throat. "Um..."

"No, no, no! Sam I didn't...I don't...Oh god!" Jack buried his head in his hands. "I respect you." he blurted out by way of backtracking. "That image is just...you are my friend...I..." Red faced Jack had nowhere else to go. He simply stood there and shook his head in denial of a situation that he thought was just getting worse and worse.

Carter felt herself snort and tried really hard to bury a laugh that came out of nowhere. She covered her eyes with one hand and allowed herself to grin. So the Colonel had a picture of her on his desktop, a picture of her in a bikini. That was hardly the end of the world. I mean he had been there and seen the real thing so why should this bother her? "Colonel." she started as she shook her head at him. "Maybe you should invest in a password for your computer...a secure one." she offered.

Jack rubbed his neck. "Yeah maybe...or maybe I should take the picture down."

"Maybe you should." she said slightly more pointedly.

Jack watched as she poured coffee into two mugs and pushed one towards him. "Thanks." he intoned as he smiled weakly at her. "I really didn't mean to offend you know. You were never, never meant to see that."

Sam smirked at him. "Oh I know that!" she teased mildly, trying to clear the last of the awkward air. "Besides, you are not the only one with...pictures." she confessed and moved away from him.

Jack paused mid-sip. "Really?" he asked, not quite sure he had heard right.

"Oh yeah." Sam said making her way back over to the kitchen table. "Same day in fact. I just never took the time to...edit the image."

"I didn't edit it!" Jack automatically defended.

"So turning Teal'c into sea and sand is not editing an image?" she asked with a raised brow.

"No." Jack stated defiantly.

Sam rolled her eyes and sat down. "Can I?" she asked him and pointed at the closed lid.

"Of course knock yourself out." Jack consented casually and came over to stand behind her.

As the image reappeared he grinned widely. "You know it really is a great picture of you."

"If you say so." Sam muttered not really wanting to look at herself on the screen. Quickly she opened her email log in page. "Sir, you mind?" she asked.

Jack loitered for a moment. "Maybe." he said. "I'm just curious to know what pictures you have." he mused with all the subtly of goa'uld system lord.

Sam's eyebrows tugged up briefly as she smirked. "Well now Sir, that is something you may never find out."

She turned and smiled up at him and he cocked his head briefly. Oh he would find out alright, someday he would definitely find out!

END

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**AN: He he :)**


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